MUMBAI, INDIA
On the recommendation of the two Semester-at-Sea students I met last week in Anjuna (thanks, guys!), I took a trip today to visit Elephanta Island, which features some really cool ancient Hindu cave temples and statues. To get there, I caught a boat from the nearby Gateway of India which took about an hour to cross Mumbai Harbour and reach the island.
When we arrived at Elephanta, I disembarked and walked down the long concrete jetty to the island--bizarrely, you can also pay to ride a miniature choo-choo train down the length of the jetty, but that just seemed stupid to me; plus I got there faster than the train did! Once on the island, there's a long stone staircase you walk up to the top of the hill where the caves are, lined with souvenir stalls on either side--slogging up the steps, I had flashbacks to Tai Shan, as that's exactly the way it was there. Unlike Tai Shan, though, this stairway was patrolled by evil red-faced monkeys. One actually tried to grab my water bottle, and I had to resort to flashing my "mean monkey" face to scare it off. There were signs posted warning tourists "DO NOT BECOME FRIENDLY WITH THE MONKEYS"--believe me, I wasn't trying to!
Once at the top, there were a number of caves/temples to explore dating from between 450 AD and 750 AD. It was really interesting to see how the natural caverns were adapted into man-made structures, with huge stone columns supporting what appear to be the natural cave ceilings. The largest temple contains a number of large sculpted scenes featuring the god Shiva in some of his many roles, including Destroyer, Creator, Protector, and, uh... Dancer? Or something like that. It also contains several smaller rooms with linga altars inside, guarded by tall statues. The most impressive sculpture by far, though, is in the center of the temple: It's a huge bust of a three-headed Shiva, with his eyes closed in serene contemplation. It really is a beautiful work of art.
Some of the other caves were little more than, well, caves, with a few man-made columns, doorways, and sculptural fragments. It's hard to say if they were always a lot more plain than the main temple, or if they've suffered more from weathering, looting, and the like. Still, they were interesting to poke around in.
After visiting the caves, I followed some signs to "Cannon Hill" and hiked up to the top of the island, where sure enough, there was a large artillery gun on a hill that looked like it was from the WWII era. I never got the explanation for why it was there, though.
Oh, I forgot: It's called "Elephanta" Island because originally there were big statues of an elephant and a horse here--the elephant statue collapsed in the 1800s and was later rebuilt on the mainland. (Not sure what happened to the horse, but I guess "Horsa Island" wasn't nearly as good a name, anyway.)
On the recommendation of the two Semester-at-Sea students I met last week in Anjuna (thanks, guys!), I took a trip today to visit Elephanta Island, which features some really cool ancient Hindu cave temples and statues. To get there, I caught a boat from the nearby Gateway of India which took about an hour to cross Mumbai Harbour and reach the island.
When we arrived at Elephanta, I disembarked and walked down the long concrete jetty to the island--bizarrely, you can also pay to ride a miniature choo-choo train down the length of the jetty, but that just seemed stupid to me; plus I got there faster than the train did! Once on the island, there's a long stone staircase you walk up to the top of the hill where the caves are, lined with souvenir stalls on either side--slogging up the steps, I had flashbacks to Tai Shan, as that's exactly the way it was there. Unlike Tai Shan, though, this stairway was patrolled by evil red-faced monkeys. One actually tried to grab my water bottle, and I had to resort to flashing my "mean monkey" face to scare it off. There were signs posted warning tourists "DO NOT BECOME FRIENDLY WITH THE MONKEYS"--believe me, I wasn't trying to!
Once at the top, there were a number of caves/temples to explore dating from between 450 AD and 750 AD. It was really interesting to see how the natural caverns were adapted into man-made structures, with huge stone columns supporting what appear to be the natural cave ceilings. The largest temple contains a number of large sculpted scenes featuring the god Shiva in some of his many roles, including Destroyer, Creator, Protector, and, uh... Dancer? Or something like that. It also contains several smaller rooms with linga altars inside, guarded by tall statues. The most impressive sculpture by far, though, is in the center of the temple: It's a huge bust of a three-headed Shiva, with his eyes closed in serene contemplation. It really is a beautiful work of art.
Some of the other caves were little more than, well, caves, with a few man-made columns, doorways, and sculptural fragments. It's hard to say if they were always a lot more plain than the main temple, or if they've suffered more from weathering, looting, and the like. Still, they were interesting to poke around in.
After visiting the caves, I followed some signs to "Cannon Hill" and hiked up to the top of the island, where sure enough, there was a large artillery gun on a hill that looked like it was from the WWII era. I never got the explanation for why it was there, though.
Oh, I forgot: It's called "Elephanta" Island because originally there were big statues of an elephant and a horse here--the elephant statue collapsed in the 1800s and was later rebuilt on the mainland. (Not sure what happened to the horse, but I guess "Horsa Island" wasn't nearly as good a name, anyway.)
posted by John Kuge at 7:05 PM
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